Patterson, Port Royal & Pickney

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The Most Hon. P.J. Patterson

The Most. Hon.
P.J. Patterson, ON, PC, QC, MP, B.A. (Hon.), LL.B. was Jamaica’s 6th Prime Minister. He took office in
1992 and served for 14 years. He previously served in other ministerial
capacities. He studied at the University of the West Indies, the London School
of Economics and the Inns of Court.

Patterson has had vast
experience as a negotiator on a national and international level, which helped
in his role while he was the Chairman of Caricom. He’s a strong believer in regionalization for the
Caribbean.

He was instrumental in the modernizing the
country’s infrastructure, as well as the financial sector. Jamaica’s borrowing
relationship (18 years) with the IMF ended during his stint as Prime Minister
and the country experienced a decline in poverty levels. His strong belief in education
led him to start a program to transform the island’s education system.

He has received an
Order of the Nation Award and in 2006 was awarded the Order of Excellence of
Guyana and is a member of the Global Leadership Foundation, a non-profit,
non-governmental organisation whose mandate is to improve the quality of
political leadership and governance through availing current national leaders
of the expertise of former leaders.

Port
Royal
is located at the southeastern tip of Jamaica. It is positioned on a strip of
land at the mouth of the Kingston Harbour.
It was established in 1518 and during the second half of the 17th
century was a centre of business within the shipping industry.

It
was the headquarters for pirates from several European countries. When the
English came in 1655, their intention was to conquer the Spanish in Hispaniola.
They were unsuccessful and took Jamaica from the Spanish instead. The English
used the help of the pirates to secure the island and because of the city’s
proximity to crucial trade routes.

These pirates were legitimized under the
name ‘privateers’. Their escapades—read that as raiding Spanish ships—made Port
Royal one of the richest cities in North America. The income from privateering
far surpassed the money made from the production of sugar.

Over
time, Port Royal gained the reputation as ‘the wickedest city in the world’
based on its community of pirates, drunks, robbers and prostitutes. It also had
the reputation of having one tavern for every ten residents. After Henry Morgan
was appointed governor, the face of the city changed and in 1687, anti piracy
laws came into effect. Port Royal now became famous for the execution of
pirates.

On
June 7, 1692, a massive earthquake rocked the city, which didn’t stand much of
a chance, built as it was on the sand. Studies have shown that the sand turned liquid
and flowed into the harbor, in a process called Liquefaction. This happens when earthquakes hit land which
is sandy in nature, and water-saturated. The increased water pressure forces
the particles to separate and form a sludge-like matter that resembles quicksand.
Picture buildings sinking and others sliding into the sea.

Thousands
died and many others succumbed to illnesses brought on by the lack of medicine,
water, and proximity to dead bodies, or which there were many. Fort Charles
survived while many others sank. The earthquake was thought to be God’s
punishment for the sinfulness of the city’s inhabitants.

The
attempts to rebuild the city met with limited success. Fires, hurricanes and
flooding hampered the reconstruction efforts. As time passed, Kingston grew in importance
and in 1815 another disastrous fire put paid to the redevelopment attempts at Port
Royal, along with an outbreak of cholera in 1850.

The
last earthquake in 1907 again liquefied the sand on which Port Royal was built
and flattened the city. Port Royal
served as the capital until after the earthquakes, at which time the capital
moved to Spanish Town.

Port
Royal is a wonderful place to visit as it is rich in history. These days, Port Royal
is a quiet fishing village where you can get the best fish meals served on the
beach. Port Royal also houses a museum and the Caribbean Maritime Institute, as
well as many relics from the past. The sites still below the sea are important archeological 'digs'. Teams of archeologists have been harvesting material from the ships that sank in the harbor
in the 17th & 18th century. Go to this link if you're interested in further details on the excavations.

An
aside here: I couldn’t resist adding the Giddy House. If you stand inside this
building (see picture above), which was left this way by one of the earthquakes, you become giddy, hence the name.

I give you a few more
Jamaican terms:-

Pickney:
child/kid.
Plural is ‘pickney dem’. Origin is from
the slave term pickaninny, which is a pidgin term meaning children of Negroes. Wikipedia has an interesting
take on the word’s origins.

Passa
Passa: Apart
from being a popular weekly dancehall event on Spanish Town Road, a Passa Passa
can be a disagreement and/or conflict that involves high drama.

This is so fascinating! I have a friend who comes from Nassau in the Bahamas, and she says that there are pirates in her family tree! I always hear about Port Royal in connection with pirates - it's pretty famous!

What a tale! I can't believe the emotions I went through while I read it. I felt excitement over the pirates, humour over the pubs, and sadness over the earthquakes...and of course, giddyness over the half-sunk house. Awesome post.